Judge King Nixes Delta Baggage Delay Reimbursement Case!

Did you know you are entitled to up to $3300 in expenses from Delta if your bags are delayed?

Neither does anybody else.

But in a suit brought by Aaron Podhurst over Delta's failure to advise customers of this policy, Judge King has dismissed the suit with prejudice, holding that it is preempted under the Airline Deregulation Act:

Plaintiff's claims clearly rest on allegations that "relate to the heart of services that an airline provides.'' Koutsouradis, 427 F.3d at 1344 n.2. Permitting this claim to move forward as plead would thus impermissibly sanction regulation of the manner in which the airline advertise their reimbursement services and would interfere with the provision of baggage handling services to their passengers, thereby offending the stated purpose of the Deregulation Act.

You can't win 'em all, I guess.

Oh yeah -- happy almost Good Friday, plebes!

Good Typography Friday

It's Good Friday and kids are out of school, offices are closed, and people are thinking about the Lord and the long weekend.

What better time to talk typography?

Do you know or even care what type font, spacing choices, or font size you use in briefs?

If "New Times Roman" is your default get the hail out of here.

Luckily, the 7th Circuit provides a wonderful, easy to understand tutorial on how best to present your briefs from a typographical perspective, offering useful tips on proportional spacing, serifs, and all other kinds of wonky technical junk that writers get into but everyone else yawns about.

Perfect for a day like today.

I like this piece of advice:

Typographic decisions should be made for a purpose. The Times of London chose the typeface Times New Roman to serve an audience looking for a quick read. Lawyers don’t want their audience to read fast and throw the document away; they want to maximize retention. Achieving that goal requires a different approach—different typefaces, different column widths, different writing conventions. Briefs are like books rather than newspapers. The most important piece of advice we can offer is this: read some good books and try to make your briefs more like them.

Read good books?  Oh man, I have to do that too?

Speaking of which, there are some fine writing tips offered in this new local blawg -- check it out.

Happy holidays!